Jerome, Prologue to Ezra (2006)

[Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb]

BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF EUSEBIUS HIERONYMUS TO THE BOOK OF EZRA

Whether it may be more difficult to do or not to do what you have requested,
I have not yet established. For it is also not my desire to refuse your
commands, and the greatness of weight imposed thus press upon the neck, so that
before a falling under the bundle, there might rather be a lightening (of the
load). The efforts of the envious agree with this, who consider all that I write
reproof, with conscience occasionally fighting against them, publicly tearing
apart what they read secretly, to such a degree that I am compelled to cry out
and to say: "O Lord, free my soul from crooked lips and a false tongue" (Ps
119.2). It is the third year that you always write and write again, that I might
translate the book of Ezra for you from Hebrew, as though you do not have the
Greek and Latin scrolls, or whatever it is which is translated by us might not
be something immediately spat upon by all. As a certain person says, "For to
strive without effort, and not to seek anything by wearying except hatred, is
extreme insanity" (Sallust, Jugurtha 3). Therefore, I implore you, my dearest
Domnius and Rogatian, that, keeping the reading private, you will not bring the
book forth into the public, nor throw food to the fastidious, and you will avoid
the pride of them who know only (how) to judge others, and themselves (know how)
to do nothing. And if there are any of the brothers whom we do not displease,
give the text to them, admonishing that they transcribe the Hebrew names, of
which there is a great abundance in this book, separately and with intermediate
spaces. For it will profit nothing to correct the book, without diligence being
preserved in the correction of the copiers.

Neither should it disturb anyone that the book edited by us is one, nor
should they be delighted by the dreams of the third and fourth books (which are)
of the apocrypha, both because among the Hebrews the discourses of Ezra and
Nehemiah are confined to one scroll, and those things which are not found among
them, nor are of the twenty-four elders, are for throwing away. And if anyone
sets the (version of the) Seventy interpreters before you, the variety of the
texts of which shows them torn and perverted, nor indeed can it be asserted
truth is diverse, send him to the Gospels, in which are set down many things as
though from the Old Testament, things which are not found among the Seventy
interpreters, like this: "He will be called a Nazarene," and "From Egypt I have
called my son," and "They will look on him whom they have pierced" and many
other things which we are saving for a more extensive work, and ask of him where
they might be written, and when he has not been able to reveal (where), you must
read from these texts which recently were edited by us, daily pierced by the
tongues of the slanderous.

But so that I might come to a shortcut, certainly what I will introduce is
the most reasonable. I have given, in what is translated by me, anything that is
not found in the Greek or is found otherwise (than there). Which interpreter do
they mangle? They may ask the Hebrews and their authors, whether they accept or
reject the sense of my translation. Furthermore, it is another thing if, as is
said, with eyes closed they want to slander me and not imitate the study and
goodwill of the Greeks, who, after the Seventy translators, with the Gospel of
Christ now shining, they both attentively read the Jewish and Ebionite
interpreters of the Old Law, namely Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, and have
also dedicated (them) to the churches, through the labor of Origen in the
Hexapla. How much more should Latins be grateful, having understood that the joy
of Greece is to borrow anything from itself (?). For firstly, it is of great
expense and of infinite difficulty to be able to have all of the texts; then
also, those who have (them) and are ignorant of the Hebrew words will err more,
not knowing which ones of the many will have said the truth. Which thing also
happened recently to a certain very wise man among the Greeks, so that
occasionally leaving the sense of the Scriptures, the error of some particular
translator was followed. And we, who at least have a little knowledge of the
Hebrew tongue, and our Latin does not lack style in any way, are both better
able than others to judge, and to express those things of them which we
understand in our language. Therefore, even if a serpent hisses, "and the victor
Sinon throws burning torches," with Christ helping, my speech will never be
silenced, for (even my) severed tongue will stutter (something). Those who will,
may read; those who wont, may throw away. They may scatter (?) the writings;
they may slander the letters. Much more by your love will I be provoked toward
study, rather than be deterred by their detraction and hatred.

END OF THE PROLOGUE

This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb,
Berkeley, California, 2006, published
here
and released by him into the public domain. All material on this page is
in the public domain - copy freely. Greek text is rendered using
unicode.